Islamic Reformism with and without the West: Mapping Religious Reformist Discourses in Contemporary Islam

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue invites the contributions of experts whose work addresses the various ways in which contemporary Muslim intellectuals and scholars have wrestled with and responded to the challenges posed by (post)modernity. The key terms here are reform (iṣlāḥ) and renewal (tajdīd). Both concepts have a long history in Islamic thought and have always emerged in times of perceived crisis and loss of authenticity. It is, however, what the definition of “true” and “authentic” Islam comprises that was—and continues to be—the main point of contention between reformers and their critics, past and present. By questioning the dominant understanding of their societies, Muslim reformist thinkers reconfigure “Islam” in ways that support their religious, social, and political vision in the light of changing circumstances. They also reshape existing hermeneutical approaches to create a congruence between religious texts and their reformist agenda, covering a wide spectrum that stretches from the necessity of abiding to the literal meaning of the Qur’an and the Sunna to the inevitability of returning to the higher purposes (maqāṣid) of the Islamic message.

In modern and contemporary times, these methodologies have deepened the gap between traditionalists, reformists, and modernists, creating a wide range of religious and intellectual discourses, all promising to solve the aches of the Muslim world. Compared with their predecessors from the 19^th and early 20^th centuries, later reform-oriented writers became more sophisticated in engaging modern thought: while the first appreciated or criticized the “West” for being the main model for imitation, the latter reflect the multiple modernities (Eisenstadt 2000) that have formed Muslim majority societies in the past two hundred years, making their reformist visions a lot more than just “reactions” to the West, but global alternative models in their own right.

We are interested in scholarship examining the presence or absence of the “West” in Muslim reformist and modernization projects. In this Special Issue, we would like to examine whether it is true that Muslim intellectuals who embrace modernity are par excellence “modernists”, whereas those who reject or are critical of (post)modernist values are per definition “traditionalists” or “fundamentalists”. We do not deny that the conceptualizations of Islam in modern and contemporary times are never detached from the complex cross-cultural layers of modernity itself as a global concept. However, we are convinced that there is a Muslim self-image that contributes to the religious, political, intellectual, cultural, and social imagery and modes of transformation in the modern and postmodern world. Therefore, the focus will be laid on the following questions: How do Muslims in different times and places redefine the nature and the core principals of Islam? How do they recalibrate the ethical, religious, aesthetic, and cultural values of their religion in modern times? Does the “West” continue to inform their understandings of modernity, or do we witness the presence of a multiplicity of modern models in contemporary Muslim writings? Do Islamic texts and scholarly traditions carry in themselves enough adaptive capacity to address the burning issues of our time and age, or will Muslims be forced to look beyond them to find their place in the contemporary world? 

Prof. Dr. Umar Ryad
Dr. Mehdi Sajid
Guest Editors

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• modernity
• postmodernity
• reform
• tradition
• Islam
• the West